GOP Nominee in Missouri Cancels Event with Anti-LGBT Pastor

Josh Hawley speaks after securing the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Missouri during the GOP watch party at the University Plaza Convention Center in Springfield, Missouri. (Source:Andrew Jansen/The Springfield News-Leader via AP)

The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri has canceled a campaign event with a preacher who once called for government regulation of homosexuality.

The Kansas City Star reports that Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley was scheduled to appear in Springfield on Wednesday with Texas pastor David Barton.

The newspaper asked the campaign Tuesday whether Hawley agreed with Barton's views about the LGBT rights movement, which he has compared to Nazism. Hawley spokeswoman Kelli Ford said later Tuesday that the event had been canceled because of a scheduling conflict.

Barton suggested in 2010 that the federal government should regulate homosexuality. And in 2017, he compared LGBT rights activists to Nazis.